How to Use Semrush: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to SEO?

Are you struggling to get your website noticed online?

Do you feel like your great content is hidden from potential customers?

This is a common problem for many people trying to grow their online presence.

Semrush is an all-in-one platform designed to boost your website’s visibility and attract more visitors.

In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to use Semrush to find important keywords and get more people to see what you offer. 

Getting Started: Your First Steps

Okay, you’re ready to jump in! Here’s how to get started with Semrush:

• Signing Up and Account Setup:
  • First, head over to the Semrush website and create an account. It’s pretty easy, just like signing up for any other website.
  • Once you’re in, take a look around the dashboard. It might seem like a lot at first, but don’t worry, we’ll break it down.
  • Semrush has different plans, but you can usually start with a free trial to get a feel for things.
• Adding Your First Project:
  • Think of a “project” as your website. You’ll want to add your site so Semrush can start tracking its performance.
  • Click the “Add Project” button and follow the steps. It’s usually just entering your website’s address.
  • Semrush might ask if you want to connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console. This is a good idea because it gives you even more information about how people find your site in the search engine.

Now that you’re set up, you can start using Semrush’s cool tools!

One of the first things you’ll want to do is check out the overview tool to see how your website is doing. 

Semrush helps any user find the best keywords for their site.

Understanding the Interface: A Quick Tour

When you log into Semrush, you’ll see a lot of information.

Don’t let it scare you! It’s like the dashboard of a car.

Lots of dials and lights, but you only need to focus on a few at a time to get where you’re going.

• Dashboard Overview:
  • This is your main control panel. It gives you a quick look at how your website is doing. You’ll see things like your ranking in Google, how much traffic you’re getting, and if there are any problems with your site.
  • You can even change what you see on your dashboard to show only the things that matter most to your SEO efforts. It’s designed to give you a quick “health check” of your website.
• Main Menu Navigation:
  • On the left side of the screen, you’ll find a big menu. This is where you find all the different tools Semrush offers.
  • You’ll see sections like “SEO,” “Local SEO,” “Content Marketing,” and more. Each section has a bunch of tools to help you with different parts of your online presence. For example, under “SEO,” you’ll find the keyword magic tool and the keyword overview tool, which are super helpful for finding your target keyword and checking its keyword difficulty.
  • Just click on a section to see all the tools inside. Each tool will help you analyze a different metric that’s important for your website.
• Reporting and Exporting Data:
  • After you use a tool and get some information, you’ll often want to save it or share it. Semrush lets you do this easily.
  • You can create reports that pull all the important data together. This is great for looking at your progress over time.
  • You can also export the data to a spreadsheet or a PDF. This means you can save your findings or send them to other people you’re working with. Look for an “Export” button, usually at the top right of the data tables.

Domain Overview: Your Website’s Snapshot

Imagine you want a quick report card for your website.

How well is it doing, and how does it compare to others? 

That’s exactly what the Domain Overview tool in Semrush gives you.

It’s like taking a quick look at your whole website at once.

1. What is the Domain Overview tool?

• This tool is your starting point for understanding a website’s online health. You type in a website address (yours or a competitor’s), and Semrush pulls up a bunch of important information. It’s meant to give you a big picture quickly, before you dive into the nitty-gritty details with other tools like the site audit or page seo checker.

2. Analyzing Your Domain’s Performance:

• Authority Score: This is a special score from Semrush, from 0 to 100. A higher score means your website is seen as more trustworthy and powerful by search engines. It’s a good way to see how strong your site is overall and how likely it is to get good keyword rankings.
• Organic Search Traffic: This shows you how many people are finding your website by typing things into search engines like Google and clicking on your links, without you paying for ads. It’s a direct measure of your organic search success.
• Backlinks: These are links from other websites that point to your site. Think of them as “votes” for your website’s quality. The Domain Overview shows you how many you have.
• Paid Search Traffic: If you’re running ads (like Google Ads), this section will show you how much traffic those ads are bringing in.
• Top Organic Keywords: This lists the most important words and phrases your website already ranks for in search results. This helps you see what’s already working well.
• Top Organic Competitors: Semrush helps you find out who your main rivals are in the organic search world. These are websites that rank for many of the same keywords as you.

3. Analyzing Competitors’ Domains:

• The cool thing about Domain Overview is you can use it for any website, not just your own! Want to see what your competitors are doing? Just type in their website address.
• By looking at their Authority Score, organic traffic, and top keywords, you can start to understand their seo strategy. This can help you spot a keyword gap – keywords they rank for that you don’t. While the seo writing assistant enables you to craft content, the Domain Overview allows you to know what content to craft based on what your competitors are doing.

Keyword Research with Semrush

Okay, you’ve set up Semrush and taken a tour.

Now for one of the most important parts of SEO: keyword research.

This is how you find out what words and phrases people type into Google when they’re looking for something.

If you know those words, you can make content that answers their questions and attracts them to your site.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

• Imagine you sell dog treats. If you guess what people search for, you might miss out. Do they search for “healthy dog snacks,” “best puppy treats,” or “grain-free dog food”? Keyword research helps you know exactly what your audience is looking for.
• It’s about attracting the right visitors – people who are actually interested in what you offer. Without the right keywords, even the best website won’t get found. This is a core part of any successful seo campaign and overall digital marketing plan.

The Keyword Magic Tool

• This is your go-to research tool in Semrush for finding new keyword ideas. It’s truly like magic for uncovering what your potential customers are searching for.
• Getting Started: Type in a broad idea, like your seed keyword (e.g., “dog treats”). Semrush will then show you thousands of concepts related to that term.
• Finding Keyword Ideas: You’ll see a big list of keywords. Semrush organizes them in different ways:
  • Broad Match: Shows you lots of different ideas, even if they’re just loosely connected.
  • Phrase Match: Gives you phrases that include your original keyword.
  • Exact Match: Only shows the same keyword you typed.
  • Related Keywords: This is super helpful! These are terms that people search for that are connected to your main idea, even if they don’t contain the same words. This helps you find more relevant keywords.
• Analyzing Keyword Metrics: For each keyword, you’ll see important numbers (we call these “metrics”):
  • Search Volume: This tells you how many times people search for that specific query (search term) each month. A higher search volume means more people are looking for it.
  • Keyword Difficulty (KD): This is a score from 0 to 100. It tells you how hard it might be to rank on the first page of Google for that keyword. A lower number is easier. This is a crucial metric for any optimization plan.
  • SERP Features: This shows you if special things appear in the search results for that keyword, like “featured snippets” (those boxes at the top of Google that answer a question directly) or images.
  • Intent: This helps you understand why someone is searching. Are they looking for information (e.g., “how to make dog treats”), or do they want to buy something (e.g., “buy organic dog treats online”)? Knowing the intent helps you create the right kind of content.
• Applying Filters: There are so many keywords, so you’ll want to filter them. You can filter by search volume, keyword difficulty, word count, or even if they include certain words. This helps you narrow down to the best opportunities for your website.
• Creating Keyword Lists: As you find good keywords, you can save them in lists. This helps you organize your ideas for future blog posts or website pages.

Keyword Overview Tool

• If you have one or two keywords you want to check quickly, use the keyword overview tool. Just type in a keyword, and it gives you a fast snapshot of all its important metrics, like search volume and keyword difficulty. It’s quicker than going into the full Keyword Magic Tool if you already have a specific term in mind.

Keyword Gap Tool

• This is a real pro tip! The Keyword Gap tool lets you compare your website with your competitors’ websites. It shows you keywords that they rank for, but you don’t. This is an amazing way to find new opportunities and see what you’re missing. You might even discover topics your competitors are doing well with that you never thought of.

Competitor Analysis: Staying Ahead of the Curve

In the online world, it’s not enough to work on your website.

You also need to know what your rivals are doing. 

This is where prospect analysis comes in handy.

Semrush gives you some amazing tools to peek behind the curtain of your competitors’ online strategies.

Why Analyze Your Competitors?

• Learning from their successes and failures: Why reinvent the wheel? If a competitor is doing great with something, you can learn from it. If they’re struggling, you can avoid their mistakes.
• Identifying market opportunities: Sometimes, your competitors might be missing out on certain keywords or topics. By spotting these gaps, you can jump in and attract new customers.

Organic Research Tool

• This tool is a powerhouse for understanding your competitors’ natural (non-paid) search efforts. You can type in any competitor’s website, and Semrush will show you a ton of data.
• Understanding Competitor Keywords: What words and phrases are they showing up for in Google? This gives you ideas for your content.
• Traffic Analysis: Semrush estimates how much traffic your competitors get from Google. This helps you see who the big players are.
• Top Pages: Discover which of their web pages bring them the most visitors from search. This can inspire your content ideas.
• Position Tracking: You can even set up Semrush to keep an eye on your competitors’ keyword rankings over time. This lets you see if their seo strategy is working.

Backlink Gap Tool

• Remember how we talked about backlinks being like “votes” for your website? The Backlink Gap tool is special because it finds websites that are linking to your competitors, but not to you.
• This means you have a list of places you can try to get links from yourself. It’s a smart way to find new internal link opportunities for your site.

Traffic Analytics Tool

• While Organic Research focuses on Google traffic, Traffic Analytics gives you a broader picture. It estimates a competitor’s total website traffic from all sources – not just search, but also social media, direct visits, and even PPC (paid ads).
• This helps you understand their full digital marketing efforts and where they get most of their visitors.

Studying your competitors with these tools can really give you an edge.

You might uncover some of their technical seo secrets by seeing how well their site performs.

And if you ever need a deeper dive into any of these concepts.

Remember, Semrush Academy has lessons for every part of your Semrush Pro journey.

Conclusion

You’ve now taken a big step into the world of Semrush.

We’ve seen how this tool can help you find what people are searching for. 

Semrush gives you the power to really understand your website.

It helps you pick the right primary keyword for your articles.

You can then create content that people want to read. This is how you attract more visitors.

Focus on making high-quality content.

So, are you ready to get started? Open Semrush and begin exploring. Your website’s journey to better search results starts now!

Alternatives to Semrush

Here are some other popular SEO tools you might consider, each with its strengths:

• Ahrefs: Known for its strong backlink analysis and keyword research capabilities, often preferred by link builders and competitive analysts.
• Content Raptor: A content optimization tool that helps with creating outlines and ensuring content aligns with top-ranking pages.
• Surfer SEO: Focuses on on-page SEO and content optimization, providing data-driven recommendations for content creation and auditing.
• Moz: Offers a suite of SEO tools including keyword research, link analysis (Link Explorer), and site audits, with a focus on ease of use.
• SE Ranking: An all-in-one SEO platform providing keyword tracking, site auditing, competitor analysis, and backlink monitoring at a competitive price point.
• Ubersuggest: A user-friendly tool by Neil Patel, offering keyword research, content ideas, site audits, and backlink data, often recommended for beginners.
• SpyFu: Specializes in competitive intelligence, allowing users to analyze competitors’ keywords (organic and PPC) and ad strategies in detail.
• Similarweb: Provides comprehensive web analytics, offering insights into website traffic, audience demographics, and competitor performance across various channels.
• Raven Tools: An all-in-one internet marketing platform for agencies, including SEO, social media, PPC, and content tools with robust reporting features.
• Mangools: A suite of five user-friendly SEO tools, including KWFinder for keyword research and LinkMiner for backlink analysis, known for its clean interface.
• Ranktracker: Primarily focused on accurate keyword rank tracking, offering daily updates and insights into SERP features across different locations and devices.

Frequently Asked Questions